The New (Beta) Anvil Editor

We recently announced the first beta release of the new Anvil Editor. We re-built the Editor from the ground up, based on insights from hundreds of hours of conversations with Anvil developers. As well as a new look and feel, the Beta editor includes new capabilities for collaboration, managing deployments, and smoother editing of your apps.

To see what’s new, read our announcement:

You can switch to the new Beta Editor, and back to the original Classic Editor, any time you like. Your applications will work with both (with small exceptions).

Beta Status

Because this is a beta release, the editor and documentation are subject to change at any time. You may also encounter a few rough edges – if you do, please let us know in the Anvil forum.

The good news is that the Classic Editor is still fully supported, and you can switch back and forth at any time. If you prioritise stability over new features or usability improvements, we recommend sticking to the Classic Editor for the next few months.

Switching between Classic and Beta

From Classic to Beta

You can switch to the Beta Editor from the Classic Editor start page by clicking on the banner under “Recent Apps:

In the Classic editor, open any app and scroll to the bottom of the App Browser. Click the link titled “See the future” to open the new Beta Editor:

You can also go straight to the new Beta Editor by navigating to https://anvil.works/new-build.

From Beta to Classic

To switch back to the Classic Editor, you can use the link in the header above the Beta Editor or navigate to https://anvil.works/old-build.

You can also find a link to switch back to the Classic Editor in the Sidebar Menu under Settings.

Beta documentation

You can find the documentation for the Beta Editor at https://anvil.works/beta-docs and the documentation for the Classic Editor at https://anvil.works/docs.

You can also switch between Beta and Classic documentation by clicking the banner at the top of the documentation page or the link at the bottom of the documentation sidebar:

App Compatibility

You can edit any app in both the Classic and the Beta Editor, even if you’re using new features that the Classic Editor doesn’t support. The Classic Editor will always edit the master branch and the default database, even if you have created other branches or other databases in the Beta Editor.

If you configure Deployment Environments for an app in the Beta Editor, you will no longer be able to configure that app’s deployment URLs or Uplink keys in the Classic Editor. This won’t happen automatically – you will always be prompted for confirmation first.

You will be prompted to migrate your app to Deployment Environments if you:

• Edit your Environments in the Beta Editor

• Create a new database in the Beta Editor

• Configure Uplink keys in the Beta Editor

App Server compatibility

Applications produce by the Classic and Beta Editors are all compatible with the open-source App Server.